Boy Scouts from Oxford Troop 108 and some of their dads had an ideal day to clean-up the campus of the St. Augustine’s Lutheran monastery in Addison Township.

This was the 11th year that this troop has done this community service project. Some of the scouts also helped Life Scout Michael Harris of Oxford with his service project to earn his Eagle Scout rank by raking and cleaning the two mile trail system, adding trail markers and trail signage. A map of the trail at St. Augustine’s will now be identified and available for hikers reference in a national online trail directory.

A sign with a special message was installed at a trail head with the following message for hikers; “Trails are like good habits – they become established only after repeated use. And, like good habits, they keep us from going astray. Trails tell us that around that mass of tangled wild grapevines, or down that slippery slope, or up that rocky hillside lies … what? Certainly something or there wouldn’t be a path through the woods at Saint Augustine’s, would there? Trails mean continuity. They link us with our past and our future. They call up ancient echoes from our ancestor’s blood as it pumps through our veins, reminding us that we’re not the first, nor will we be the last, to tread this earth. And somehow that’s reassuring. If there’s a trail, maybe we’re not lost after all.”

The scouts accomplished in one day what would have taken the staff and guests weeks to accomplish. Red Knapp’s American Grill again donated pizzas for the scouts and fathers lunch and VFW Post 334 donated $200 for the Eagle Scout project.

St. Augustine’s is located on East Drahner Road, two and a half miles east of Lapeer Road. At 10 am every Sunday, worship service is held which the public is invited to attend. St. Augustine’s is the only Lutheran monastery in the United States, but there are several in Europe.